Multi Users In a Workbook

[Aheron]

Is there a way for a single workbook to be open AND editable by multiple users?The workbook we have is on a network drive. When one user opens the workbook, any other user can open it, but gets the Read Only messgae.Thanks for any help with this issue.

[jrb]

Hi Richard,

I don't have experience with multiple user's in the same spreadsheet, but some google searches will turn up some hits...

http://www.ehow.com/how_5913825_cont...readsheet.html

As this article suggest, how are you going to control the fact, one person makes a change to a cell and 10 seconds later somebody else changes that same cell to something different.

[RetiredGeek]

JRB,

As far as I know you just can't. There are some work arounds though. Back in the 90's I'd developed a workbook that needed to be accessed by several divisions. My solution was to have each division have a copy of the workbook with ONLY their data, which was all they were concerned with anyway. At the company level their copy of the workbook had a consolidation fearture that would pull in the data from all the divisions when needed for the overall picture. Worked great in that application. I'm sure there are others here who have faced this problem and probably came up with other solutions to fit their situations.

[simmo7]

Richard,

Yes you can share the workbook. In Excel 2007 use - Review, Share Workbook - prior to this you can use Protect Sheet and a password if you want some areas restricted. In Excel 2003 use - Tools, Share Workbook - prior to this you can use Tools, Protection, Protect Sheet and a password if you want some areas restricted.

I have noted in the past that some forum members actively discourage workbook sharing as files can get corrupted, however, I have several workbooks that get shared on a weekly or monthly basis between about 2 dozen users at a time, with very few problems most of the time, the occasional file does get corrupted and I then have to recreate the file which is a pain in the neck.

Regards,
Maria

[jeremybarker]

Is there a way for a single workbook to be open AND editable by multiple users?The workbook we have is on a network drive. When one user opens the workbook, any other user can open it, but gets the Read Only messgae.Thanks for any help with this issue.

Yes - this practice was widespread in the last company I worked for! See Maria's post for specific instructions on how to set up sharing. A typical use involved a large datasheet, each row of which contained a particular username or other identifier so users could filter on their name or product area and get at their own data independently of others. There was occasional corruption with very large files (we're talking 20MB here!), but in general things were OK.

Be aware that Excel stops you doing certain things in Shared mode, like inserting columns or editing macros.

[Aheron]

Shareing the workbook so far is working graet.Thanks to all for your help.

[zeddy]

Keep an eye on the file size.
You will find it 'bloating' depending on how many users are sharing it.
And depending on how long you have chosen to keep 'change history' (under Advanced tab when choosing to share workbook).
It can quickly double and triple in size etc as Excel keeps 'copies' within the file to track user changes.
To reduce the file size, when no-one else is using the file, unshare the workbook, save it, and then turn the sharing back on. I call this 'squeezing' the file.

zeddy